Friday, June 27, 2014

The Archbishop of York doesn't like the word 'radicalised', so he has called on all religious leaders to ensure that young Britons are not "brainwashed" into fighting and killing in the name of their faith.

Dr Sentamu told Sky News: "I don't want to use the word radicalising. I think it is brainwashing. We don't want our young people to be brainwashed believing really a lie, that by fighting and killing another person your religion becomes better. All religious leaders, whatever tradition they come from, have got a duty to work together to make sure that our young people are not being brainwashed into some kind of nonsense."

His Grace was struck by the first comment on this in the ensuing chat thread: "I went to a catholic school, ok it was some years ago, but they brainwashed all the kids, or at least they tried, we were taught some nightmarish stuff, hate protestants, too many to put on here, but one sticks in my mind, I actually felt sorry for some of my friends because they were not catholic, we believed they would never know god because they weren't catholic, all religious schools try & brainwash the kids, we have to separate schools and religion, all it did for me was turn me against the church, it's all about controlling people, people are far too educated these days to fall for the churches rubbish. OH' and the begging bowl and the usher telling my dad, silver only today, I hate them. Richest business in the world, keep them all out of schools. They teach segregation."

Extremist atheists and secularists will aver that all religious indoctrination is 'brainwashing' that inflicts harm on children. Professor Richard Dawkins is persuaded that sex abuse does "arguably less long-term psychological damage" than being brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. He told Mehdi Hasan on al-Jazeera: